Neil Lennon is still looking to sign Brentford’s club captain Romaine Sawyers despite interest from Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United, according to the Daily Record.

What’s the story?

Celtic are looking to add an attacking midfielder after missing out on Motherwell’s David Turnbull and it looks as if Sawyers is the man they want to bring creativity to their side, although Championship high-flyers Leeds are also interested.

With Tom Rogic rumoured to be leaving the Parkhead club in favour of Zenit St. Petersburg Lennon is hoping to add to his attacking midfield pool and Sawyers’ seven Championship assists have caught the Celtic manager’s eye.

Is he worth the risk?

The reported £2.5 million fee is sizeable for a player who would face stiff competition from Ryan Christie, Mikey Johnston, Ewan Henderson and Rogic (depending on how true the Zenit links are). Celtic have a good crop of players in the mould of Sawyers already at the club and with Christie, Johnston and Henderson all at the beginning of their careers there’s no real need to rotate the youngsters.

The attraction to Turnbull was obvious and at £3 million was well worth the risk given how good he was last season but with Sawyers’ record of just seven assists (and no goals) in 46 games last season, Lennon might be better testing the youngsters for the first six months of the season before going back in for Turnbull if the 19-year-old has returned from injury by then rather than pushing the boat out for Sawyers.

Sawyers’ record is not that of a Celtic transfer target and with the emergence of Johnston and Christie as viable first-team players any potential signing needs to be an exceptional candidate (like Turnbull) and at £2.5 million the Brentford captain is far an extraordinary bargain.

Allowing Bielsa’s Leeds to take Sawyers should be Lennon’s policy going forward but with his clear desire to add another creative midfielder it would be no surprise to see him in a Celtic shirt soon.